PITTSBURGH—Mitt Romney’s pre-recorded video greeting for the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting received a lukewarm response here Friday, a reminder of his weakness on an issue important to the Republican base that at times dogged his 2008 campaign.

The nominal Republican frontrunner skipped the NRA’s meeting so he could attend a forum in New Hampshire, a state he must win to have a realistic shot at the nomination.

“I’m sorry I can’t be with you today in Pittsburgh, but I wanted to wish the National Rifle Association my congratulations (on) 140 years of defending our basic Constitutional rights,” he said in a two-minute video message. “Way to go!”

There were neither cheers nor boos. Thousands in the crowd sat silently but respectfully as the video of Romney, trying his best to look relaxed with his now-trademark open collar, projected on three big video screens at the front of the convention center ballroom.

He received short and polite applause only at the end; there was silence at the beginning.

At this point in the last cycle—April 2007—Romney skipped the NRA’s meeting in St. Louis. His opponents faulted him then for purchasing a “lifetime” NRA membership only the previous August.

During that campaign clips emerged from his failed 1994 run for the U.S. Senate in which he had signaled support for the assault rifle ban and the Brady gun control measure.

“That’s not going to make me the hero of the NRA,” Romney told The Boston Herald in September 1994.

On Friday, Romney said: “We all know it hasn’t been easy, and some years have been better than others, but the NRA has been blessed to have great leaders who’ve never faltered in defending the Second Amendment.”

Emcee Chris Cox, the powerful executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said nothing about Romney’s evolution on the gun issue when he introduced the clip. Compared to how he talked about the other candidates, Cox spoke only in broad generalities.

“At the end of the day what we demand of our elected officials is results,” Cox said. “Our next message comes from a proven leader in the business and public service. He famously rescued the Salt Lake City Olympics from certain disaster and turned it into a tremendous success. He’s a man deeply committed to limited government and individual freedom. Please watch this message.”

Romney went to great lengths to tout his support for the Second Amendment during the last campaign and in the years since he lost to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also upset gun rights activists during his own phase as a maverick. Romney’s staff circulated a two-page fact sheet in 2007 that listed pro-gun measures Romney supported during his single term as governor of Massachusetts. Romney spoke to the NRA annual meeting in Phoenix in 2009.

In the Friday message, Romney congratulated his “his friend” David Keene on becoming the NRA’s president earlier this year.

Keene, then chair the American Conservative Union, endorsed Romney in 2007. The ACU puts on the Conservative Political Action Conference, and Keene’s an elder statesman whose opinion is valued among establishment conservatives of a certain vintage.

“He’s one of America’s great conservative leaders, and I know he’ll do an outstanding job defending our rights,” Romney said.

“It’s often hard to know where our president stands on critical issues, but you always know where Wayne LaPierre stands,” he said. “The strength of the NRA, of course, is its strong grassroots membership. And Wayne and the NRA leadership team has been extraordinarily skilled at just how and where to apply that strength to protect our Constitutional rights.”

Much of Romney’s 120-second message had nothing to do with gun rights. He went through a riff modeled on his still-developing stump speech on American exceptionalism, intent on linking Barack Obama’s administration with the Europeans.

“I continue to be inspired by the wisdom of our Founders,” Romney said. “They created a nation unique in the history of the world. Rather than making a king or government sovereign, they made the people sovereign. Now some in Washington today would change that, not with a king, but with a large and oppressive federal government, just like the Europeans.”

“When our economy was in trouble, they grew government. Just like the Europeans.

“They had the federal government take over health care. Just like the Europeans.

“They believe that the answer to our energy crisis is higher energy prices. Like the Europeans.

“And when it comes to rights and responsibilities, they believe the federal government knows best. They’re wrong.

“I believe in the Constitution as it was written and intended by the Founders,” he added. “I don’t apologize for America because I believe in America.”